Bethesda is a rapid transit station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro system in Bethesda, Maryland. It is one of the busiest suburban Metro stations, serving 10,608 passengers each weekday in 2012.[1] Upon its completion, the proposed Purple Line will terminate at Bethesda, providing rail service to other inner Maryland suburbs such as Silver Spring, College Park and New Carrollton.

Located at the center of the area's central business district, Bethesda station lies underneath Wisconsin Avenue at its intersection with Montgomery Avenue. In the direction of Shady Grove, it is the first station wholly within Montgomery County, as Friendship Heights straddles the border between Maryland and Washington, DC.

The station opened on August 25, 1984.[2][3] Its opening coincided with the completion of 6.8 miles (10.9 km) of rail northwest of the Van Ness–UDC station and the opening of the Friendship Heights, Grosvenor, Medical Center and Tenleytown stations.[2][3][4] It is relatively deep; prior to the opening of the Wheaton station, the Bethesda station had the longest escalator (213 feet (65 m)) in the Western Hemisphere.[5] In October 2014, the replacement of the first of three 106 foot entrance escalators at the station began. The escalator site preparation, demolition, construction, installation and testing was projected to take approximately 42 weeks to complete.[6]

The station's construction has been a major boon to the area, with several office buildings being built on (in the Bethesda Metro Center complex) and around it.